This is a collection of five romantic, hot and sexy stories about modern women and the men they love. All of the stories depict romantic and physical relationships with nothing held back. The title story is about a relationship between young teacher Mika Tsukahara and Naokazu Kuga, an 18-year-old student at her school. Some say forbidden fruit is the sweetest! They’re neighbors too, and can’t control their attraction to each other. Love thy neighbor! From Luv Luv with love! By Kanae Hazuki Publisher: Aurora (LuvLuv) Age Rating: 18+ Genre: Romance Price: $10.95 Voices of Love is a collection of 5 different stories with very different leads but all with a happy ending for the women. Even though these are ladies comics, not all of the stories are told from their perspective, adding to the variety. The first story is also the title story, “Voices of Love”. It’s about a young teacher and her next-door neighbor/student. They seem complete opposites, as she the responsible type, and he is more reckless, especially with is relationships. They have tentative relationship that is cemented when she is assaulted by a fellow teacher. The story was told well enough, but I don’t care for the…
Momoko Tenzen is very popular, but based on Seven, it’s hard to see why. Seven tells the story of an abandoned boy discovered by a bar owner at the age of twelve and given the name “Nana” — “Seven”, and of Mitsuha, an itinerant writer who meets Nana while searching for his long-lost brother Nanao. There is a backup story concerning exactly what did happen to Nanao, and a follow-on tale that shows how Mitsuha and Nana get on once they’ve started travelling together. By Momoko Tenzen Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Genre: BL/Yaoi Age Rating: M/Mature/18+ Price: $12.95 And I find I have very little to say about any of it. None of it is offensive or stupid or ugly; I don’t much like Tenzen’s drawing style, since she goes in for wispy, indistinct figures and vague, low-detail backgrounds, but it’s easy enough on the eye. The story is coherent and makes a certain amount of emotional sense, but again, there’s an air of vagueness about it that makes it frustrating and unengaging. We never learn much about where the characters’ emotions are coming from, or about concrete details of their lives; Tenzen hops around from scene to scene in…
Music has always been a powerful source of stimulation. Kyoichiro is a hot new pianist known as “The Conjurer of Melody” who possesses an extremely arrogant “bow before my greatness” attitude. So it’s no wonder that Kazune, Kyoichiro’s manager and lover, can’t help but feel she is nothing more than his erotic plaything. Will she be able to prove to Kyoichiro rhar she is more than just an instrument of pleasure? OR will she continue to be swayed by his intense melodies of desire? An erotic romance that will stimulate your senses with the rhythm of passion! By Rin Tanaka Publisher: Aurora Publishing – LuvLuv Genre: Romance/Josei Age Rating: M/Mature/18+ Price: $10.95 Arrogance that matches his musical talents, Kyoichiro is a popular pianist in this sensual tale of romance. Kazune, the ever doting girlfriend, has to manage both Kyochiro’s professional career and her adoration for a man who at first seemed to care more about making beautiful sounds in the bedroom than making the beautiful maiden truly happy. For me this was a great transitional title from the sometimes overly sappy shojo titles to a much more mature series that is geared more towards women. Within the first volume one…
Abandon the Old in Tokyo is a collection of eight short stories each with an interconnecting theme. Each is centered upon a working class male living in a gritty urban setting, and sometimes the protagonists are even drawn in similar manners. Originally reviewed by Matthew Rozier By Yoshihiro Tatsumi Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly Age Rating: Not rated, but contains mature content. Genre: Drama Price: $19.95 Each story is thought-provoking as Tatsumi deals with a variety of subjects ranging from alienation/disconnection from society to poverty to sexual dysfunction. Tatsumi deals with each subject with such a down-to-earth sense of honesty. Almost as if he experienced each of these things himself. He also manages to put so much depth into each of his short stories, so much that he really asks all the right questions. Questions like: why do we do the things we do? what does it take to stand out amongst other “individuals?” are we really any different from animals? Tatsumi’s art is gritty and rough, even sloppy at times. His character designs also do not exhibit the greatest range, as sometimes it is difficult to tell characters apart. He also draws the protagonist exactly the same in a few…
“Since you may die at anytime…your civic duty is to live as well as you can.” Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit is a new manga from Viz, and despite the dark premise, this new series has some bright surprises. By Mase Motoro Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: M for Mature Genre: Drama Price: 12.99 USD At some point in the future the Japanese government issued the National Welfare Act. This is a three-tiered government program that immunizes all children, but one-in-one-thousand will be infected with a nanocapsule that will open up sometime between the age of 18 and 24 and kill the carrier. The thinking is this program will improve people’s value of life. As a result suicides go down and the birthrate goes up. Our “hero” is Fujimoto, a young man who has survived his 24th year and is recruited as an ikigami delivery man. An ikigami (literally “death paper”) is notice delivered to Welfare Act victims 24 hours before the nanocapsule initiates heart failure. I put hero in quotes as Fujimoto at least initially hardly questions the obvious moral ambiguity of the government program that now employs him. This first volume is divided into two stories (and it appears…
One of the announcements made at this year’s Comic-Con International was the live-action production of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service by Dark Horse and Universal. (Actually, I seem to remember some talk of this a couple of years ago, but regardless, it is good news.) Does the story of a rag-tag group of Buddhist diviners and dead talkers trying to make a living delivering corpses to their proper final resting places merit a big screen release? Written by Eiji Ōtsuka; Illustrated by Housui Yamazaki Age Rating: 18+ Genre: Horror Price: 10.95 USD I didn’t expect so much blood…Did you? Summarizing it like that, it seems like it might, but I am even more hopeful that the news of the big screen production will bring people to this excellent manga series now. Nine volumes are available now from Dark Horse Manga, but I realized that we have only a spattering of reviews here at Comics Village, so I am going to try to fill in the blanks as I painstakingly reread some of the earlier volumes of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. The first volume of Kurosagi is not my favorite, but it is the necessary introduction of thankfully small band…
“I used to sell myself. I’d do whatever anyone wanted for money. And that’s normal for me! This guy you just slept with here… he’s disgusting!” By Kazuna Uchida Publisher: Aurora Publishing – Deux Press Genre: BL/yaoi Rating: 18+/M/Mature Price: $12.95 The BL genre is relatively new, having first come into existence in the 1970s with pioneering works by artists such as Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya, but not really taking a stable form until the 80s; this is how Deux Press can get away with calling I Shall Never Return “early yaoi” even though it’s less than 20 years old. For all that the 90s are more recent than the 70s, though, there’s definitely something distinct about I Shall Never Return that sets it apart from more recent BL series. Both the art style and the content bear the marks of the era in which the book was created. They don’t make ’em like this any more. The story concerns the tumultuous relationship between Ritsuro the glasses-wearing neat-freak and Ken the smouldering bad boy; they’re friends in childhood, but when Ken turns thirteen, his parents get divorced and he starts going off the rails, and Ritsuro tries to “console”…
Though it isn’t much of a confession, sometimes I am surprised at how many people assume I read a lot of manga in Japanese. Because I spend most of my days (and nights) translating works into English, it is (I hope) understandably hard for me to spend my free time reading manga in Japanese. As a reader of Japanese let me say we are so lucky to live in an era where the talent translating manga into English is second to none (present company excluded). Actually more important than that is the way the fans have convinced the publishers to give the most authentic retelling of their newly beloved series. It wasn’t so many years ago when stories were simplified, for lack of a better word, to be understandable to native-English speaking audiences. What that means is that instead of talking about the “Hamburg steak” a character had for lunch, she would talk about a cheeseburger. The fans got more savvy to Japanese culture, however, and the publishers followed suit. Translators rejoiced and editors had to start learning about Japan. By Kiminori Wakasugi Publisher: Viz Media/Viz Signature Age Rating: Mature Genre: Comedy/Music Price: 12.99 USD Fast-forward to 2006 when during…
Shiki loses control of his senses and reveals his true “monster” nature within him as he goes on a mad killing spree. Subsequently, Shiki begins to recall fragments of his childhood memories, which reveal some important secrets of the Tohno family. Just when Shiki collapses from his killing spree, Roa appears with the intention of killing him, but Akiha tries desperately to protect Shiki. Ciel later joins the fight against Roa, and more secrets of Ciel’s painful past are revealed. By Sasaki Shonen Publisher: DRMasters Age Rating: 18+ Genre: Horror/Thriller Price: $9.99 This volume is all about the flashbacks. While these are often thought to disrupt the flow of a story, in this title, they are vital. They give essential pieces to the puzzle that connect one part of Shiki’s past and open up a whole new section to piece together. Ciel’s past is explored as well, with pieces connecting her to Roa is a rather surprising way. The first flashback happens just before the appearance of Roa and does a lot to explain the snippets of memory that Shiki has been seeing over the last several volumes. They fill in the gaps and answer some of the questions about…
Yuri returns to Ugarit along with the news that Nefertiti, the queen dowager of Egypt, has fallen from power. Kail is relieved that the dire threat posed by the covert communications between Nefertiti and Nakia is now over, but feels certain this development will only fuel the war between the Hittite Empire and Egypt. What neither he nor anyone else on either side of the conflict realizes is how hot things are actually going to get! By Chie Shinohara Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Mature (18+) Genre: Historical Romance Price: $9.99 With Egypt’s internal problems solved, they turn their attention back to the Hittite empire. Kail is well aware of this and moves to face their challenge head on. But all the fighting doesn’t slow down the behind the scenes intrigue, as the fruits of Yuri’s labors in Egypt are endangered from the inside. This was another fantastic volume of historical drama. Picking up where volume 22 left off, we see why this title has a mature rating, but it’s done tastefully, and full of emotion. Then it’s off to battle as the Egyptian army, led by Ramses and the pharaoh himself, Horemheb, who intend to take back Byblos. Kail…